March 11, 2015

This is the age of information. In 2012, there were an estimated 51 million websites on the Web, and about 140,000 new site launches each day. This saturation of destinations and data has made it increasingly difficult to ensure that relevant traffic – and lots of it – are making it to your website.

Website traffic (or the lack thereof) is the single most important hurdle a digital business owner faces, and in order to remain relevant, online companies must continuously be reinventing ways to drive eyeballs to their creations.

For many, the key lies in content and social media. You’re probably already on social networks like Facebook (and if you aren’t, build a presence there, fast.) There are serval different ways that you can leverage social media networks and content hubs like blogs to generate more page views without breaking the bank. Highlighted here are several tips, tools, and techniques on how to redirect the flow of traffic right to your front door.

Optimizing Blogs and Connecting with Bloggers

You’ve worked hard to create an informative and user-friendly website; now you need to kick into acquisition mode. The old “if you build it, they will come” adage is the antithesis of a realistic marketing strategy. One of your tickets to getting the attention you deserve revolves around great content. Blogging and publishing articles, videos, infographics, slideshows, eBooks, and related content is one highly beneficial way for users to find the information that a company is producing. Simply posting content to Facebook and forgetting about it will not suffice.. Yes, you want to share your content creations in the social realms. But you need a more cohesive strategy. Several important steps to optimizing content to drive traffic are:

Focus on long-tailed key words as these are being used more frequently with the rise of smartphone technology and beginning to prove vital for improving SEO. Make sure your post contains relevant search terms and phrases. And do your homework here; select long-tail phrases that your audience is actually using to access your content.

Optimize headlines to convey exactly what it is that the content relates to and to pique the reader’s interest. Every internet user has a bevy of options when it comes to content; entice them with irresistible headlines; just make sure they are relevant to the content itself or this strategy can drastically backfire.

Promote blog posts to your email list and join a blogging community. Sites like ProBlogger are invaluable tools for connecting with other bloggers in your niche and cross promoting content, allowing your piece to be seen by more potential visitors. Additionally, if anyone has already linked to your site, reach out and see if there is a cross promotion potential there as well.

Utilize Social Media to Its Fullest

Social media is a company’s best friend for promoting content.. Sites like Facebook provide businesses with an unprecedented platform for sharing content and information with people who are already interested in your respective field. But posting to Facebook should not be an endgame. Expand your social campaign by:

Starting a Facebook group for your particular niche where users can get support, ask questions, and build a community surrounding the very thing your site provides. Building a group like this will provide numerous opportunities to point members to your website and to nurture your ambassadors and customers.

Post on Reddit. Users of Reddit can really rally around an idea when the time is right. Take a look at what they were able to accomplish for this terminally ill cancer patient. Reddit is still an untapped resource by many companies, and the loyalty and popularity can be a goldmine for your efforts.

Set up a YouTube account. Out of all of the social media platforms, YouTube possess the most active users. When a YouTube visitor links to a site from the platform, they tend to view about 3 pages per visit. This is a great indicator that YouTube can send you targeted viewers. If you’re not creating video content, it’s time.

Facebook Status Updates Can Seriously Drive Traffic

If you have a blog, you should absolutely be utilizing status updates to drive traffic to your site. While it’s true that Facebook doesn’t showcase your status updates to your entire list of followers, there are some tricks of the trade for increasing your conversion rates and reach:

Use selective quotes or phrases that will entice the reader to learn more. By acquiring a user’s interest without giving away the entirety of the plot or data you can lead them to your blog. From there you can try to retain a visitor’s interest with other related articles.

Repeating status updates with recent blog posts is okay to do. In fact, it is advisable since only a small percentage of your followers are going see it the first time around. Repeat new content posts several times at different intervals so more users have the chance to view it. Don’t get overzealous though, you don’t want to become a nuisance.

Link to your blog in the “About” section of your page. It’s actually quite astonishing the number of businesses who do not utilize this space, which should be a no-brainer. Facebook provides an ample amount of space for information on businesses, so optimize this area to ensure more traffic is received by your site.

Gaining a heavier flow of traffic for a company website can be a difficult endeavor to take on without the proper knowledge, but it’s an essential task. By ensuring that your content is optimized you are likely to increase the number of visitors your site receives, giving you an opportunity to convert those visitors into engaged members of your website.

What traffic driving tactics have you found that produce results? How has the use of social media posts affected the volume of traffic reaching your website?

Conscious online marketer, web executive, and multi-faceted writer Tina Courtney has been creating and fostering online innovations since 1996. Tina has assisted many clients in maximizing online production and marketing efforts, and is a staff writer for SiteProNews, one of the Web’s foremost webmaster and tech news blogs. She’s produced and marketed innovative content for major players like Disney and JDate, as well as boutique startups galore, with fortes including social media, SEO, influencer marketing, community management, lead generation, and project management. Tina is also a certified Reiki practitioner, herbalist, and accomplished life coach. Learn more on LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+. Visit My Google+ Profile